No mechanical problems at all.
The H3 handles and drives very well. It is a very nice and comfortable vehicle.
However, this truck is NOT a rocket. The HP is just over 200, and it needs all of it just to move the heavy chassis. I know the truck is not built for speed, but I thought it would be faster.
Don't mistake performance for power. Surprisingly, the power you need is there. I am using the truck for post Katrina clean-up and it has pulled some seriously big oak and pecan trees off of my land. I bought the truck for my wife after we returned to New Orleans and I have been using it ever since.
The truck gets a lot of approving responses from people, but there are some who do not like the way it is designed, or they say it is a woman's SUV. First of all, I bought it for my wife and second, after what we've been through and all the obstacles in our area, I am very happy to put my wife and son in something so safe and agile. We won't get stuck in this truck.
I drive an H3. I love it, it's a great truck. It is very capable off the road and in the elements of the mountain state in which I live. It carries myself and my three children snowboarding with all of our gear. It does this with no problems - during blizzards. The truck gets 20 mpg, handles very well and is reliable.
A few thoughts:
1) I've been considering the replacement of my 1997 Acura CL 2.2 (with manual transmission) with a new vehicle. I purchased the Acura new and have enjoyed 30+MPG combined city/highway MPG for 8.5 years. While I earn a very good living and could simply ignore the price of gas, my concern for both the environment, our country, etc, demands that my new vehicle get at least the same or better fuel economy. That being said, I'm still curious about what is available out there in the SUV segment. So, knowing that I'll probably end up with another near-luxury passenger car that gets decent mileage, I still have spent some time reasearching various SUVs, among them the Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee, and the Hummer H3. In my research I came across this site and I read many of the Jeep Libery reviews before tackling these Hummer H3 reviews. Alomst all of the Jepp Liberty reviews complain about the poor fuel economy of that vehicle, suggesting a combined city/highway under 15MPG. Conclusion: Anyone bashing a Hummer H3 for poor fuel economy should bash the Jeep Liberty just as hard.
2) I also researched the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the VW Toureg. The Hummer H3, at 186.7" in length, is exactly the same length as the Jeep Grand Cherokee. It is a bit taller than that vehicle, but is not quite as wide. As for the Hummer Vs the VW, the Hummer weighs less. So anyone bashing the Hummer H3 based upon it being a hazard to other drivers on the road should also bash the Jeep Grand Cherokee just as hard. And both of these vehicles are small compared to most other full-sized SUVs and full-sized trucks. And if you're thinking has gone as deep as the realization that about 20% of the energy used by a modern vehicle over its lifetime is represented by the energy used to turn raw materials into the vehicle (i.e., the energy used to produce the vehicle), then you should bash the VW Toureg just as hard based upon its greater weight in raw materials used to construct it. For that matter, the Toureg weighs nearly as much as the H2, so you should bash it even more.